Iron Guardian
by Overfic23
Summary: Landfall had destroyed a country, the world had seemed to turn against her. Now being hunted for what she has done she seems to be truly alone in the world, until her actions cause a ripple that may change the world. Something ancient had been woken that night, something dangerous, something noble. "For the Dinochrome Brigade!"
1. Chapter 1

*Crossover with the Bolo series by Keith Laumer, not in crossovers for reasons. The updates will be short and infrequent probably.*

Climb walked into the tavern and looked around, he could feel the danger in the room from these high level adventurers, all of them now focused on the newcomer. As he scanned the room his eyes soon fell on the individuals he was sent to find, the remaining party members of the nearly all female adventurer group 'Blue Rose'. He walked over to the three individuals at the table, getting their attention.

"Oi, cherry boy. You here to finally take up my offer? I have a room if you are ready." the one with such a vulgar comment being the hulking female warrior at the table. He then felt the gazes of the present adventurers shift to ones of pity and humor.

"No Gagaran, I bring a message from Lady Laykus."

"Ah, what could it be that our venerable leader wants you to tell us?" She replied with slight sarcasm.

"I believe it would be to inform us of a new job Gagaran, there would be no other reason to contact us through him." The easily most imposing figure Climb had ever witnessed said. Even when sitting its hulking frame made the tank like warrior next to it seem small with its seven-foot tall height, heavy armor that exposed not even the slightest hint of skin or weakness, and a deep, menacing voice that seemed to be manufactured with the purpose of creating fear in those who heard it.

"That was sarcasm, how have you never learned sarcasm?" came the frustrated reply of the warrior.

"Do you really expect INZ to actually care about something like that?" the cloaked, masked figure on the other side of the table said.

"I don't know how you two have stuck together for so long."

"She is my Commander. There is no other purpose for me other than to assist her in every way." INZ said.

"I don't get it, you two are just so different from normal people."

"I think we are getting off topic. What is the message you have from our leader?" Evil Eye, the cloaked figure, said to the previously silent Climb.

"Ah, yes. The message is 'we have a new job, be prepared to fight.'"

"Ho? Who are we supposed to be fighting?" Gagaran inquired.

"Yes, from what I over-heard it seems that it will be the eight fingers again."  
"INZ, begin recon and initialize targeting programs. That will hopefully speed things up." Evil Eye said to the armored behemoth next to her.

"Acknowledged."

"Cherry boy, why don't you two go? Maybe he can teach you something new. We will get ready and meet up with the leader later."

"Okay."

"INZ. It would be good to perform some surveillance before the operation. Go with him and scout out the possible targets, and see if you have any pointers for him." Evil Eye said.

"Understood. Come, we should go now Climb."

"Ah, yes sir!" a nervous Climb stated, trying to catch up to the unnaturally quick departing figure of INZ, unsure of what 'training' awaited him.


	2. Chapter 2

_My sensory coding snaps to attention as another rumble in the ground around me stresses my weakened hull. This is the third one since I came back online. Perhaps the burst of radiation is what woke me up?_

 _I am wasting time as I ponder this, I must hurry, the total of 1 hour 53 minutes and 23.54 seconds is quite a long time for a Psychotronic system, even one damaged as much as I am. But, I have not wasted this time. I now know what is wrong with me, what it will take to return to the battlefield, and most importantly, I have made sure all of my more dangerous armaments will not go off without my approval. That would be bad._

 _I do not know where I am exactly, nor how I got here. It is quite strange to find one's self completely buried in dirt and on one's 'side'. It was a few interesting Pico seconds between me discovering this and truly accepting it. I am getting off track. Hopefully this digital note will prove useful to me and the Concordiat in the future. My communications system is still coming up black on any known channel, even ancient Morse code radio frequencies, leaving me to believe I am alone for now._

 _My systems diagnosis shows that I am at an abysmal 63.3% combat readiness. Although, if my atomic clock is to be believed it is shocking that I am even capable of base processing. I guess my stasis, as well as the fact that I was completely deactivated, helped keep me in this good of shape. Internal reserves and the material in my surrounding should be capable of repairing me completely given about a month. Hopefully I can use that time to learn more about my circumstances and prepare._

 _I must start now; I know what I can do while wait. It should not take long for me to finish my preparations._

In the dead of night, the ghost town of the once beautiful city only one sound could be heard. The soft crying of what seemed to be a young girl. No insects, birds people, or even rats in the sewers, just the lonely sobbing of a young girl in a dead land.

Finally, the girl was able to stop sniveling, she should leave, people would surely try to come hunt her. Luckily, her magic had settled down, no longer causing the ground beneath her to buckle. As she started to move once again a numbness settled into her small frame. 'I must keep moving. Hopefully I can find someplace before the sun rises.' She thought to herself.

Hours passed, the dead city several miles behind her now. As she passed around a small knoll, an abandoned village came into view. One of surely many in the path of destruction carved into the land. As she approached the town the distinct lack of human life became apparent as she tried to find a livable structure.

She eventually came across a dilapidated structure that at least still had some form of roof. Entering the structure, she looked around grimly 'this will have to do.' She thought darkly. As she settled down to rest for the day, curled up on a pile of moldy straw with a moth eaten blanket to cover her body, she failed to notice the fact that she was being watched from far away by a very curious, but twice as dangerous entity.


	3. Chapter 3

_'I have found a way to the surface. The Combat Unit will be useful for research with its modifications. I will have it be heavily armed though, I do not want any surprises. My spider drones were able to quickly make a tunnel through the soft earth above me, allowing me to deploy a few small platforms.'_

 _'I made my way to the surface with the small Combat Unit, and was able to start taking readings on my surroundings. It is very green on this planet, almost completely undeveloped. I am detecting no signals from orbit, so I can rule out any space capable races on this planet. It is unfortunate that I am unable to make contact with command, I will have to try again once I have regained full combat readiness.'_

 _'Those strange signals are still showing up on my sensors. However, I can now confirm they, along with the recent seismic activity are originating from the ruins of a town. Perhaps I should investigate that region first? It would be good to locate some samples of the cause of this signal. For now, I will wait. The modifications to this combat unit are not complete, and it will take several hours before they are. In that time, it would be good to deploy some micro aerial drones to secure the local area and plant some passive sensor masts.'_

 _'Something has disturbed one of the newly planted sensors. It is still very far away, but appears to be approaching this hill from the ruins. It is strange, now that I can see it clearly I am thoroughly confused. I thought all humans were in the Concordiant, but this world is clearly not a Concordiant colony. It appears to be a young child. Roughly twelve years of age and possibly female judging by the body structure. I do not appear to be getting accurate thermal reading though, the current body temperature I am reading would be that of a deceased individual. I will need to make contact to gain further information.'_

 _'The subject appears to be moving around the hill towards the abandoned settlement on the opposite side, it has clearly not noticed my presence. I will continue observations for now, I believe it would be best to wait until daylight to approach the subject for further data.'_

 _'It is now daylight, and all of the self-modifications I made to the combat unit are complete. I must say that I am impressed with my handiwork. I was able to install an internal reactor, battle screens, as well as arm it very well for a platform of its size. It has a standard Linear Energy Weapon as its side arm, two mono-edged combat knives, a shoulder mounted infinite repeater, and a plasma rifle that can switch to flechettes or hell bore rounds as needed. I will have it make its way down the slope towards where the aerial drones are reporting the subject.'_

 _'I have approached the subject, it appears to be sleeping. Perhaps it is best, I am still trying to compute exactly what it is. Now that I am much closer I have detected no heart beat or other normal vital signs, as well as the odd lack of body temperature. If it was not for the occasional stirring in its sleep, I would say it was dead. For now I will just wait for it to wake, a bolo has the time and patience to do so.'_


	4. Chapter 4

The young girl woke with a start, something was moving around near her. She had no idea how it was possible for her passive abilities to not pick them up, they usually have no trouble noticing any dangerous life forms around her. She could tell she was being watched, but from where she couldn't tell.

She new it was best to keep moving, confrontation would not be helpful, and given what she had done there is no way it wouldn't end in violence. She moved quickly and quietly through the ruined village, hoping to make it to the nearby forest where she could lose the observer.

She unfortunately was not known for having the best of luck, and came around a corner only to slam right in to what felt like a large metal wall.

"Oof~" The cute sound the only response she could formulate as she fell on her butt.

"Ah!" After noticing the rather imposing armored figure she had run into she scrambled to get away. When her legs not working properly, she crawled back around the corner she had just come around, hoping to get clear of the person obviously sent to hunt her down.

Her mounting terror made her start to panic, the heavy plodding footsteps of whoever was following just adding on to her fear. She didn't make it far, her strength was spent and whoever was following her was able to take long strides to reach her and was quickly able to tower over her small and trembling frame.

"Please, don't hurt me!" she cried out, begging for some form of mercy from this ruthless hunter following her.

" **Identify.** " The deep voice of her pursuer terrified her, and it took her rattled mind a few seconds to look past her hands that had been put up in a feeble attempt to block any hits.

" **Identify.** " The monotonous repetition made her question just what kind of being was standing over her. She spread out her senses, hoping to grasp what kind of being it was that stood over her. When she finally figured it out she was shocked. It was a golem! And a very expensive and unique golem if she had to guess, the only ones she had ever seen were status symbols for organizations or the very rich, and usually made of wood.

As she got closer look she was able to tell that it was obviously a well-made, meticulously crafted golem, and no doubt made to be able to fight. Her fear was starting to return, most of her skills and abilities would be completely useless in a fight against it, her only hope was to do everything she could to not fight it. "Ke, Keeno. That is my name!" She was finally able to stammer out.

" **What is your race?** " It asked, its voice obviously neutral and devoid of emotion, bet that just made it all the more terrifying.

"I, I'm a human? No, not anymore." She whispered, completely distraught. "I'm a vampire now. Please, I don't want to hurt anyone."

" **Vampire, mythological undead from human history. Important features being enhanced speed and strength, a need for blood for sustenance, and some form of vulnerability to sunlight.** " Came its factual and bland response.

"Hey! I'm not mythological!" She retorted angrily, her stubborn streak surfacing for a second before receding in terror after she realized what she said.

" **On what Concordiant world are we located?** " It asked, completely befuddling the young vampire.

"I, I don't know? What is a Concordiant?"

" **You stated that you were previously human. All human occupied worlds are under the Concordiant of Man. Any exception to this is a rebel or break off colony the should be aware of what the Concordiant is.** "

"I don't know what you are talking about, but this area is part of, no used to be, the Kingdom of Fasris. How do you not know where you are?" She had no idea what was going on anymore, this was a golem, something that wasn't able to talk usually, and it had no idea where it was. She was just confused beyond belief, and all she wanted was to get out of this situation and away from the clearly dangerous and uncontrolled golem.

" **Where is the nearest city? It may have more pertinent information to my query.** "

"The city of Euline is about five days walk northwest of here, you can follow the main road that is on the other side of the hill."

" **Will you be willing to assist me in my search? I still have many questions and inquiries into the events and circumstances of this area. There are many oddities that I have been unable to explain.** "

"O, okay. Only if you are willing to protect me. Please! I have nowhere else to go and I don't want to get hurt."

" **Understood, please lead the way, it will take some time before I have a better bearing of my directions and relative location.** "

Keeno scrambled after the golem as it started to head off towards the main highway. She very quietly fell in step beside it, always having to push to keep pace with it. The land and time started to blur together as they marched through the wasted land, they did not stop to rest or sleep, as the golem didn't need it and she wasn't about to complain when she could keep going due to her constitution.

While neither were aware, that day saw a fateful meeting that would create a dou that would save the world many times over, but never remembered in history as these two ageless beings marched through time.

* * *

Rigrit stood atop the castle wall, looking out upon the sea of low level undead that used to be the citizens of a bustling city, now the last remnants of a dead nation.

"What happened here? This doesn't look the same as attacks by the evil deities we've been fighting." A masculine voice asked. She turned to look at the armored knight who approached her. To any other human they would have cried out in shock and fear, the imposing form of a minotaur too unexpected and hazardous to view apathetically. But for Rigrit, for the barest of moments a smile graced her features at she looked upon such a trusted 'friend' as him.

She quickly schooled herself though, the situation too dire and tragic for further tangents of thought. "Vampire, and a powerful one at that. No idea how or why it showed up here now, but we need to clean up its mess, and track it down so we prevent this from spreading further."

"I just got a few reports from the other members, all of the out lying villages and towns are deserted, and the major cities in the area are the same as this one. It seems a path of destruction carved through the whole country, we will have to rush if we want to catch up with the vampire to cut it off at the next city."

"I don't like it. So much death, and for what?"

"Can't tell ya, but we need to hurry. If we waste time on hunting this vampire the demon gods' rampage will wreak to much havoc for the area to recover from."

"*sigh* I know. I'm just so tired. We haven't rested in months, and with Mirphous gone it will just get harder to keep going."

"Come on, lets wipe out the large hoards before nightfall so the army can clean up once the get here, and we can leave."

With a job to do, the two heroes turned away from the depressing scene and moved to start clearing out the town of undead. With their strength and the undead trapped within the city walls, the heroes who had bested rampaging demons had no trouble cleaning up quickly. In the early morning a group of knights from the neighboring kingdom arrived on horseback, scouts for a main column of troops sent to clean up and wipe out any undead. With their job done, the heroes rushed off to try and beat the vampire to the next undamaged city in its path, Euline.


End file.
